difference between creating a mix and playing live

This topic has 18 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 13 years, 2 months ago by adit.

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January 17, 2013 at 12:55 pm #35202

J-Zed
Participant

When they play live they end up catering to a crowd, they gotta make the crowd happy through tricks, effects or anything. Mixes like radio shows are primarily to promote new music and producers.

January 17, 2013 at 2:22 pm #35207

adit
Participant

So do you think I’m “qualified” to play out if I haven’t learned any trick/effect? I’m afraid I’ll sound flat.

January 17, 2013 at 3:33 pm #35216

DJimC
Participant

Honestly, I’m almost never using effects in my sets. If you can provide good music and mix it together in some non-disruptive fashion, you are definitely ready to play out.

January 17, 2013 at 5:50 pm #35228

Ernie Sega
Member

I think it’s because you can get away with more abrupt effects and transitions in a club. I don’t believe they are necessary, but if I ever do them, it’s almost never on my recorded mixes. The extreme noise of the PA system in a club, the added noise of the crowd, and all the drinking tends to make things that would normally sound harsh on a mixtape sound fun and exciting played live.

I find that when I listen/watch a live DJ in a club I actually pay slightly less attention to how smooth transitions are as compared to when I listen to his/her mixtape. In a club I care more about how engaged the crowd is and typically they love whatever that DJ is doing.

If I’m in a quiet room with no distractions and a mixtape is on, I’ll notice way more things in detail. Harsh effects or transitions will stand out.

Hope this helps.

January 17, 2013 at 6:55 pm #35233

DJ Johnny Fantastic
Member

I hardly ever use effects in my mixes because if I screw it up, even slightly, you can hear it every single time you listen to that mix. It is there forever but in a club, if it’s slightly off, it’s easy to recover from and is easily forgotten. I always take more risks when playing live then I do when recording mixes.

That’s not to say I won’t try different things out at home even while recording mixes but I am more selective. If I’m working on a 45min+ mix and I screw up 30mins in, then I just wasted 30mins of my time since I will always stop right away and restart.

January 17, 2013 at 7:15 pm #35234

J-Zed
Participant

DJ Johnny Fantastic, post: 35389, member: 1322 wrote: I hardly ever use effects in my mixes because if I screw it up, even slightly, you can hear it every single time you listen to that mix. It is there forever but in a club, if it’s slightly off, it’s easy to recover from and is easily forgotten. I always take more risks when playing live then I do when recording mixes.

That’s not to say I won’t try different things out at home even while recording mixes but I am more selective. If I’m working on a 45min+ mix and I screw up 30mins in, then I just wasted 30mins of my time since I will always stop right away and restart.

I gotta disagree with that, I think when it comes to making proper mixes effects can really help. Obviously it increases the chances of mistakes but imo nobody gets ahead by not taking risks, even the small ones.

January 18, 2013 at 3:17 am #35253

adit
Participant

ok so what do you think is the essential effects that I should learn? I mostly play house and techno. (by “play” of course I mean in my room).

January 18, 2013 at 7:19 pm #35292

Ess Jay
Member

Delay, filter, and beatmasher (sorry but people love it) are the ones I use mainly. Sometimes reverb and very very occasionally gater

January 20, 2013 at 6:38 pm #35374

J-Zed
Participant

adit, post: 35409, member: 2099 wrote: ok so what do you think is the essential effects that I should learn? I mostly play house and techno. (by “play” of course I mean in my room).

Learn everything, you might as well. I’m a house and techno guy all the way and I try to play with everything. My big ones are reverb, peak filter, regular filter and delays. I also play around with the gater, auto bouncer, flanger & phaser (yes, they can be used sometimes and sound awesome).

Just experiment and make mistakes, nobody gets good by playing it safe.

January 21, 2013 at 7:33 am #35397

NietzSKY
Participant

adit, post: 35409, member: 2099 wrote: ok so what do you think is the essential effects that I should learn? I mostly play house and techno. (by “play” of course I mean in my room).

My go-tos in traktor: Zzzuurrrp or w/e it is, Iceverb, Beatmasher, flight test, polar wind, gater, delay t3. As far as essential, I believe delay, reverb, beatmasher. Also, make sure you feel comfortable with looping, it’ll help add a great deal to your sets in terms of performance.

Some people get down with flanger/phaser, but that shit just annoys me.

January 22, 2013 at 9:10 am #35462

adit
Participant

What’s the use of reverb? Is it only to make that in-a-cave sound or does it also aid mixing?

January 23, 2013 at 8:49 am #35502

Gilman
Participant

Also i’ve noticed that tech/house djs layer tracks while playing live, while in mixes which they post online they just make transitions.

January 23, 2013 at 3:52 pm #35515

aaron altar
Participant

Maybe it all has to do with the couple of drinks djs frequently have before going on. I know if I’ve had a few drinks I’m a lot more likely to use effects and try more difficult techniques but when I’m completely sober I rarely use effects or transition techniques that I’m not completely comfortable with (unless I’m just screwing around). There’s my 2 cents. What do you mean by “layer tracks” vs “make transitions?”

January 23, 2013 at 6:30 pm #35537

Gilman
Participant

rjwhite41, post: 35671, member: 2565 wrote: What do you mean by “layer tracks” vs “make transitions?”

By layering I mean playing two tracks (maybe one track and one loop) at the same time, while in transition I mean just going from track A to track B

January 23, 2013 at 6:55 pm #35540

aaron altar
Participant

gilman, post: 35693, member: 510 wrote: By layering I mean playing two tracks (maybe one track and one loop) at the same time, while in transition I mean just going from track A to track B

I think you’re listening to some poor mixes. Layering is a key component of edm mixing. I, for one, never transition without layering.
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